Our People
Brian Bell, Managing Director
Brian Bell is Managing Director of Wilson Hartnell Public Relations and has over 20 years’ experience in dealing with the Irish and international media. He specialises in financial and corporate communications and media relations, as well as providing strategic advice on corporate reputational issues and stakeholder relationships.
Brian has worked on numerous public flotations, acquisitions, MBOs, takeovers and corporate restructurings. In 2009, he led the WHPR team which won both the Aer Lingus and eircom accounts – two of Ireland’s largest corporate accounts.
Prior to joining the firm in 1989, Brian spent 10 years as a business journalist with the Irish Press Group of national newspapers, where he was financial editor. He was also a regular contributor to RTE, the BBC in London and Belfast and ‘The Independent’ and ‘Daily Mail’ newspapers in London. The holder of a diploma in journalism from the College of Commerce, Rathmines, Dublin, during the year 2000 he completed the Irish Management Institute’s Directors’ and Senior Managers’ Programme.
Brian is also a director of the Ogilvy Group in Ireland and part of the European management team of Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, of which Wilson Hartnell is a member.
Roddy Guiney, Chairman
Roddy Guiney is Chairman of Wilson Hartnell Public Relations. He has spent most of his career with WHPR joining the board in 1978. He went on to become Managing Director in 2003, overseeing a period of remarkable growth for the consultancy.
He has extensive experience across a range of sectors including planning issues and development projects, marketing/consumer PR and crisis communications. For the past few years he has worked extensively on a number of major infrastructural projects for Irish sport.
A specialist in corporate public relations and sponsorships he has been involved in the creation and development of many major sponsorship partnerships, particularly in the sports area where he devised award winning sponsorships across a number of sports.
He has been active in the development of the Irish PR industry serving both as Chairman of the Public Relations Consultants Association and as President of the Public Relations Institute of Ireland (PRII) . He was made an Honorary Fellow of the PRII in 2005.
Sharon Murphy, Director - Head of Consumer Practice
Sharon has twelve years experience in public relations, across consumer PR, sponsorship and social marketing. A board member of WHPR, she heads up the consumer practice and has led the development of a number of award winning PR campaigns for some of the largest global and Irish brands, including the Guinness 250 celebrations, which received the Supreme Award from the Public Relations Consultants Association in 2010.
Sharon has a proven track record in the development of insights for PR campaigns that capture the imagination of the consumer and ultimately, deliver on the client’s objectives. Sharon is passionate about innovation within the industry and has embedded digital competencies as an integral approach to PR. Her straight talking approach delivers a no waffle guarantee!
A native of Cork, Sharon was educated at University College Dublin, where she obtained a BA in Social Science, specialising in Social Research. She also holds an MA in Public Relations from the Dublin Institute of Technology, a Diploma in Strategic Management from the University of Cambridge and a Certificate in Social Media from the Public Relations Institute of Ireland
Sheila Gahan, Director - Head of Corporate PR
Sheila Gahan is head of the Corporate Practice at WHPR and is a director of the company.
She has recently completed a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) in the global wine industry and also holds postgraduate qualifications in business and investment management from Trinity College Dublin and Dublin City University.
A former student of the year on the Marketing Institute’s Graduateship course, she has since been awarded a fellowship of the Marketing Institute of Ireland and a life fellowship of the Public Relations Institute of Ireland.
She has over 20 years experience in communications consultancy. Her experience has covered all aspects of public relations including reputation management, stakeholder communications; financial PR, crisis & issue management, marketing communications and media relations.
Before joining WHPR, Sheila worked with Sheedy Communications, Murray Consultants and the Bank of Ireland.
She is a member of the MBA Association, The Marketing Institute of Ireland; the Public Relations Institute of Ireland; and the Guild of Agricultural Journalists.
Lorraine Dwyer, Director - Head of Lifestyle PR
Lorraine Dwyer joined WHPR in 2005 and set up the Lifestyle PR Division. Her team specialises in creating, developing and implementing award winning strategic communications programmes for a broad range of retail, restaurant, beauty, drinks, food and tourism clients including Marks & Spencer, Kildare Village Outlet Shopping, Specsavers, Milano, Elizabeth Arden, Smirnoff, and The Lodge at Doonbeg. Lorraine is passionate about social media and works closely with her colleagues in Neo@Ogilvy on digital campaigns.
Lorraine, who began her career with Irish Distillers, has worked in the PR business for over fifteen years. She joined WHPR from O’Herlihy Communications where she worked across a range of consumer and corporate clients for four years. She spent a year in the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney, where she was involved in a series of major events around the Millennium Celebrations and 2000 Olympic Games. She previously worked with Fleishman Hillard Saunders (FHS) in Dublin.
A graduate of University College Dublin, she has an honours PR diploma and a certificate in Social Media from the Public Relations Institute of Ireland.
Lorraine sits on the board of WHPR and is a member of the PRII, MII and WXN.
Alistair Hodgett, Head of Public Affairs and Healthcare
Alistair has led WHPR’s Public Affairs practice since 2009 and added responsibility for the Healthcare practice in 2011. In this role, he supports clients across multiple sectors in the pursuit of their public policy, stakeholder relations and general communications objectives. He has more than two decades of experience in developing and executing strategy, communications and media relations campaigns on behalf of politicians, corporations and NGOs.
He is a former management consultant with McKinsey & Co in Dublin and London, where he supported senior executives of high-profile companies and public sector bodies across a wide range of industries and issues, but with a concetration in healthcare.
Before joining McKinsey, Alistair lived in Washington DC where he was Media Director for Amnesty International from 1999 to 2005, which included on-the-ground crisis management in conflict zones in Sierra Leone in 2000 and Iraq in 2003. He began his career in Washington as a political consultant, working to elect members of the U.S. Congress and Senate, as well as supporting industry lobbying campaigns.
He holds an MBA from University College Dublin and a Bachelors in Political Science and Philosophy from the University of Birmingham.
Máire Scully, Head of Sports Marketing & Sponsorship
Máire has twelve years experience in the public relations industry. She joined WHPR in 2001 to work with the Sports Marketing & Sponsorship team, and has been head of the division since 2006.
Máire began her career in Aer Lingus, before her love of sport led her to becoming Basketball Ireland’s first Press Officer in 1997. During her almost five years with the NGB, she also worked as a freelance sports journalist, working for both print and broadcast media.
A specialist in sponsorship strategy, she has devised award winning sponsorships across a number of sports during her time with WHPR. Máire works closely with brands through any and every stage of the sponsorship process, from strategy to delivery, using the knowledge, processes, insights and contacts she has grown in over a decade working with Ireland’s leading sports sponsorship experts.
She holds a BA in Communication Studies from Dublin City University, and a Post Graduate Diploma in Advertising from the Dublin Institute of Technology.